Road deaths continue to rise

Statistics released by the Department for Transport (DfT) show a two per cent increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads over the last year to 31 March 2016.

Commenting on the provisional estimates of reported road casualties, David Davies, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), said: “The government is failing in its manifesto commitment to reduce the number of road users killed or seriously injured every year. There has been very little reduction in these figures since 2010. The number of deaths involving drink driving is stuck at 240 a year and the estimated total deaths in the past 12 months is only lightly lower than it was five years ago.”

“We need to see stronger action on a range of fronts, particularly drink-driving which accounts for 13% of all deaths.”

PACTS supports:

An increase in drink-drive education and publicity by the DfT;

More support from the pub and drink industry to promote alcohol-free drinks and named driver campaigns;

Better enforcement of drink driving by the police;

Type approval by the Home Office of mobile evidential breath test equipment;

A lower drink-drive limit in England and Wales, as in Scotland and (soon) Northern Ireland;

An overhaul by the MoJ of the provision of drink drive rehabilitation courses;

Full analysis of the impact of the lower limit in Scotland.

Davies added: “A separate issue that is becoming increasingly evident is the vulnerability of the entire casualty reporting system to lack of prioritisation by some police forces. The Home Office needs to make clear that accurate and timely reporting is essential.”

This warning comes after seven police forces, including the largest ones (Met and Greater Manchester) failed to submit casualty reports in time, forcing the DfT to estimate the figures for quarter 1 of 2016.